I'm a danish student (sorry for any language-fails!) who in a few days have an exam. The exam is about Agent Orange in the subjects History and Biology.Agent Orange was an herbicide used under The Vietnam War to remove leaves from the trees to see where the enemy hid. But Agent Orange contamines the very toxic TCDD, dioxin. My assignment is: - To explain what Agent Orange is (like why it was used) and what dioxin is - To explain the biological and human consenquences of Agent Orange - To discuss why America used Agent Orange and whether they knew the conseqences

My problem is the biology-part. I've read a lot about how dioxin influences the immune system, the nervous system, the endocrine system and reproductive functions. But I do not know how. I kind of get the feeling that it has something to do with the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor, but I don't get it. The AhR-receptor influences or interacts on the cell cycle, I think? (not having English as a first-language kind of complicates the reading too)Also dioxin leads to deformities on babies of dioxin-affected parents. Why? How? Does it have something to do with mutations?

See, the problem is that I don't have the knowledge to link all these informations together. And I have no idea how to find out. My teacher recently had a death in the family so she isn't much of a help.I was wondering if any of you maybe could help me?